Need your help on this sentence

Question

So I was reading today and came across this sentence: Hace cinco años tenía veinticuatro años de edad. The word in bold what does it mean? I read the whole sentence but the word tenía I don't understand. Can someone help me understand the sentence and the word. Thanks

Answer 1

Hello Ros.

Good question

Tenía is the imperfect form of the verb tener = to have, and is always used in Spanish to show/indicate a person's age!

It just means that the person speaking or writing these words said/is saying: "Five years ago I was 24 years old.

In English we say I was 24 but the Spanish people express the idea by saying: I had 24 years.

I hope this helps

:) - ian-hill, Apr 14, 2015

gracias Feliz - Rozalyn01581, Apr 14, 2015

De nada, Ros :) - FELIZ77, Apr 14, 2015

Thank you, Ian :) - FELIZ77, Apr 14, 2015

Answer 2

There's a translation link on this site from the home page - put in tenia - and see what happens http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/tenia